reflows

Steve Jobs observed that when people have a vertical screen in front of them, they didn't want to be poking it with their finger all the time. But when users put themselves in laptop mode (who cares what mode the device is in), Apple maintains its' dogma about the identity of an iPad as a touch device. I guess it's a way to do something sensible to respond to the user's needs instead of the company's identity, but without acknowledging that the creed has been broken.

I say it's about time, and when I'm in a spot where I need to use a physical keyboard for actual writing, I'll do my best to think it's a mouse. I'm the one who has an identity and a use case, not the machine I'm using.

Notice I said "when *I* am in laptop mode. I would like to see the machine adapt to my use, rather than to force me to fit its dogmatic paradigm.

I've been attracted by iPad since it arrived, but I use it less and less because it falls short at the specific things I want it to do. One is the ability to use it as a tablet at a meeting, which would require handwriting recognition to be a lot better and better integrated as others have noted. That would get me (and hopefully others) out from behind a circle of screens around the conference table distracting people from what the meeting is about. Because that doesn't work well, I try with a keyboard, but when I'm in laptop mode, the iPad is not because of the dogma that insists that an iPad can't have a pointing device. Steve Jobs was the one who pointed out that laptop users do not want to be reaching up to a touch screen, and he was right - so in my office the Surface all anyone is buying for meetings. I would be happy if Apple would get just one of those just right, and any extra benefit reading on the bus would be gravy.

Apple is making hardware that's closer and closer to what I'm hoping for - but missing the boat. I am a Mac enthusiast, but the use case for the iPad pro is in conference rooms and meetings. That's where the surface is dominating. In a meeting you need access to a real file system, and when you have the iPad propped up like a monitor, you're in laptop mode and need a mouse or trackpad. (It would be easy to turn my iPhone into a trackpad for that purpose). Steve Jobs was the one who said nobody wants to be reaching up to touch a vertical touch screen, and he was right. Apple is being uncharacteristically ideological, placing the focus on what a touch-based system is "supposed" to do instead of matching the user's needs. When I've got an iPad horizontal I touch it and want to use a pen on it, but when it's facing me vertically with a screen in front, *I'm* in laptop mode and the device should match the use, not some ideologically driven preconception of what touch-based systems should do. If they focused on what I need in a conference room I'll buy it, but everyone else at work is on the Surface now and I may succumb - because it uses a real file system and has a trackpad.

I know what risk I'm taking in holding onto old devices.  Of course they will be slower with new OS'es.  But I choose to take that risk and appreciate that Apple hasn't put them on the obsolete and unsupported list sooner than I'm ready to update them.

How about a class action suit against predator class action attorneys who take our options away with any excuse to claim some stupid person might be deceived?